AK Party's current vote share at 50.2 pct, party vice chairman says

According to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) Vice Chairman Hamza Dağ, the current parliamentary vote for the party sits at 50.2 percent.

Speaking in a televised interview yesterday, Dağ shared the results of a survey conducted by the AK Party in the month of October. Accordingly, he said his party has 50.2 percent of the vote, compared to the Republican People's Party (CHP) with 23.2 percent, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) with 10.7 percent and the pro-PKK Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) with 10.5 percent.

The other parties, on the other hand, garnered 5.5 percent of the vote, he said.

The vice chairman also expressed that the percentage of votes within the AK Party is more or less the same with the April 16 referendum.

Meanwhile, speaking about the influence of the İYİ Party (Good Party), which has bene newly formed by MHP dissident Meral Akşener, Dağ said that its presence did not have an effect on the voting percentages of the main political parties. He said that each party has the tendency to maintain its voting base.

"Even if someone from the AK Party, for example, decides to no longer vote for the AK Party, that person usually prefers to remain among indecisive voters rather than vote for another party," Dağ indicated.

In October, another survey conducted by the Optimar Research Company revealed that many people do not want to vote for Akşener and the Good Party because they believe it will not able to pass the 10-percent election threshold.

According to the survey carried among 1,547 participants from 26 provinces across the country, the Good Party's vote rate, at 6.4 percent, would be lower than that of the HDP, if an election were held today.

The same survey says that if an election were held now, the AK Party would get 50.6 percent of the vote; the CHP would garner 23.3 percent, the MHP 9.9 percent, the HDP 7.8 percent and the Good Party 6.4 percent.

Regarding the survey results, the head of the Optimar Research Company, Hilmi Daşdemir, said that the AK Party seems to be protecting its share of votes.

"According to the survey, the opposition will be further split," he added.